(Review) Big Bloody Balkan Battles

Bloody Big Balkan Battles! is perhaps the one item on Brigade Games' e-mailing list that has actually caught my eye.

I have an interest in the "little-known" wars that are ignored, and the Balkans definitely fit the bill.  To find a collection of history and scenario in 68 pages surprised me greatly, even for 25 bucks.

Disclaimer: I don't play Bloody Big Battles, but the fact that they dedicate pages of this book for manufacturers of Balkan figs from 2-3mm up to "Historic" 30mm means the book is far more valuable to a larger, if still niche, group.

Besides an a twelve page historical overview of all the conflicts lumped into the Balkan Wars, and some of the major characters leading the armies, there are TONS of scenarios.  

One page is given to each side for the Order of Battle. An incredibly dense sidebar covers unique scenario rules set-up, victory conditions and even other options to run variants of the battle.  Since I'm not an expert on the Balkans, I can only say the author appears to have great knowledge on the subject and has relayed the information into understandable encounters.  

The maps appear to be largely set up in 4'x 6' grids, sometimes larger..  For 2mm up to 10mm, I can believe you can cram enough figures and terrain on the board, but 15mm+, with these Orders of Battle, the troop ratio must be large enough to allow maneuverability.... or perhaps the maps presented can be broken down in two or three maps for still large-scale skirmishes.  Heck, I could imagine some of the scenarios broken down into min-campaigns.  Some of those alleged square feet have four villages in them!

Heck, thinking of this as a supplement to my current Great War era interests (Gnome Wars), I could very well see multiple skirmish+ level games breaking out and their collected results would determine the winner of the scenario.  

The bibliography appears very solid, and I have a few new reading selections to look out for.

With tons of scenarios, lots of historical overview, and a well organized, put-together book, on the Gaming with the Gnomies Five Gnome rating system, Big Bloody Balkan Battles earns four and a half gnomes out of five.

It has the potential for being far superior from what is presented, but it will require a bit of work to be properly used for my Gnome Wars games (but it will be better than another ambush scenario or raid on the brewery).  Big Bloody Balkan Battles is available in print and pdf through Brigade Games.